Harry Norris (conductor)
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-born conductor best remembered as musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
between 1919 and 1929. After leaving that company, Norris emigrated to Canada to teach but returned to retire in England in the 1960s.
Life and career
Norris was born in InvercargillInvercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
, in the southernmost part of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. He was awarded a scholarship to study in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
where he won the Hill Prize for violin. At this time he was known as "Henry W Norris". A fellow student was the future D'Oyly Carte star Darrell Fancourt
Darrell Fancourt
Darrell Fancourt was an English bass-baritone, known for his performances and recordings of the Savoy Operas....
.
D'Oyly Carte years
In 1913 the conductor Landon RonaldLandon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
, responding to a request from Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
, recommended Norris as a coach and principal violinist for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
. His appointment was delayed by his active service in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, but he finally took up the D'Oyly Carte post in either 1918 (according to his own account) or 1919 (according to Rollins & Witts), not as leader but as conductor. He served briefly with the D'Oyly Carte's new small touring company, and in September 1919, he moved to the main company for the start of the London season at the Prince's Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
, where he served as assistant musical director to Geoffrey Toye
Geoffrey Toye
Edward Geoffrey Toye , better known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer....
.
Norris was the company's musical director from February 1920 to May 1929, except for the London West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
seasons in 1921-22 and 1924, when Toye again took charge, and 1926 when Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
was guest conductor. He was never musical director for a D'Oyly Carte London season, though he shared the conducting and was allotted the occasional first night of an opera's run. During his tenure with the company, Norris married and divorced one of the company's sopranos, Elsie Coram. From January to June 1927, Norris toured Canada with the company, and from September 1928 to May 1929 they toured Canada and the U.S. Norris left the company at the end of that tour.
As musical director, Norris was responsible for a number of changes to Sullivan's scores. Prominent horn parts were added to the accompaniment to "A Lady Fair" in Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
that are customarily referred to as the "Norris" horn parts, though they may have been written by Toye. They were expunged by Sargent but subsequently restored by the D'Oyly Carte musical director Royston Nash
Royston Nash
Royston Hulbert Nash is an English-born conductor, best known as a music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, who is now living in the U.S.-Life and career:...
in the 1970s. In addition, in 1921 Norris, in collaboration with J. M. Gordon
J. M. Gordon
J. M. Gordon, was an English singer, actor, stage manager and director, best known as the influential long-time director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company following the death of W. S. Gilbert.-Life and career:...
, cut Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
from its original one hour running time to play in about half an hour, so that it became suitable as a curtain raiser for The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
or other shorter full-length pieces. This version remained in the company's repertoire until 1977.
Of Norris's work with the D'Oyly Carte company, Samuel Langford
Samuel Langford
Samuel Langford was an influential English music critic of the early twentieth century.Trained as a pianist, Langford became chief music critic of The Manchester Guardian in 1906, serving in that post until his death...
in The Manchester Guardian wrote, "Mr Norris, the conductor, we think favours too much in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
an easeful enthusiasm. The work on the stage would be all the finer with a keener precision in the orchestra." Earlier, Langford objected to "the occasions when the accompanying melodies took rather a canonic than a simultaneous form." The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, on the other hand, praised Norris's "admirable swing and fluency" and commented that he justified D'Oyly Carte's confidence in him."
Later years
After leaving the company in 1929, Norris settled in Canada with his second wife, Doris Hemingway (also a former D'Oyly Carte performer) and their son, taking up an academic appointment at McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The Norrises were founding members of the Montreal West Operatic Society, which performed the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Doris served as stage director and Harry as musical director, which post he held from 1939 to 1963. They also worked with St. Paul's Operatic Society
Lakeshore Light Opera
Lakeshore Light Opera , a not-for-profit society, performs Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in the West Island of Montreal, Canada.- Early years:...
, among other groups. He also played the viola in the McGill Quartet with university colleagues.
Norris volunteered at St. Helen's School, Dunham, Quebec
Dunham, Quebec
Dunham is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 3,396.-Population:Population trend-Language:Mother tongue language ...
, in the 1940s and 1950s. He rehearsed and directed the school's annual carol service at St. Matthias and directed an annual spring production of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He also gave lessons to the school's advanced piano and singing students.
Norris retired from teaching in the early 1960s and he and Doris moved to Barton-on-Sea near Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, England. He died in 1979 at the age of 91.
Recordings
For His Master's Voice, Norris conducted D'Oyly Carte recordings of:- IolantheIolantheIolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
(1922, conducted part of the recording) - H.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
(1923, part) - RuddigoreRuddigoreRuddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
(1924) - Princess IdaPrincess IdaPrincess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
(1924) - The MikadoThe MikadoThe Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
(1926) - The GondoliersThe GondoliersThe Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(1927); and - Trial by JuryTrial by JuryTrial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
(1928)
The first four were recorded by the old acoustic process. A photograph of Norris and D’Oyly Carte colleagues with the huge recording horn used in the acoustic process can be seen here. The other three were recorded by the new electrical technique, though it can be clearly heard that in the electrical recordings Norris retained some of the orchestral augmentations (e.g. low brass playing lines written for low strings) used for acoustic recordings.